20 contribution points.
That was all it cost Yang Shen to obtain 100 sets of the ingredients he needed to concoct the Sant Pill according to the System's recipe.
But, given that 50 points were something that Outer Disciples received once every month, Yang Shen felt that maybe contribution points weren't as valuable as he originally thought they were.
Luckily, the Deacon who was responsible for managing the Herb Pavilion said something which clarified all of Yang Shen's doubts.
"Are a hundred sets going to be enough? Usually everyone would purchase at least five hundred sets when they are attempting to concoct a new pill."
Though Yang Shen didn't know how the Deacon guessed he didn't refine the Sant Pill before, given that his robes showed that he was a Core Disciple, he understood that contribution points were indeed very valuable.
If on an average it would cost 100 contribution points for an Outer Disciples to master concocting a single Level 1 Pill, he didn't dare imagine how hard it would be on Inner and Core Disciples to master refining higher level pills.
At the same time, he began thinking if he would also need to spend so many points to master concocting the pills.
Did he maybe go a little overboard by spending so many points to hire five maids?
Thinking back to how sexy all of them looked when he left his courtyard, Yang Shen felt that those contribution points he spent on them were definitely worth it.
Thus, he didn't waste too much time walking around aimlessly and went back to his courtyard with the hundred sets of herbs inside his Spatial Ring.
….
Feeling his entire body shivering from pride and pleasure as five sexy women each who was dressed more scantily than the other welcomed him as soon as he opened the door, Yang Shen almost right then pounced on them.
However his desire to take his time and savour each and every one of them one by one won in the end, due to which he didn't do anything to any of them.
Well, nothing other than squeezing Lei Bai's exposed breasts and Hu Meili's perky ass that is.
But to be fair, they were both just so alluring that Yang Shen could not resist groping them.
After that though, Yang Shen didn't touch the maids any longer and instead told them to not disturb him as he entered the Alchemy Room to attempt concocting an alchemy pill for the first time ever.
The so called alchemy room was nothing more than a square room which had a few empty tables to place the herbs on which were needed during the process of pill concoction, a few cupboards to store ingredients inside if they didn't have enough space inside their Spatial Rings for them.
Other than this, there were a few arrays laid around the room which increased the concentration of Qi inside the room.
But, the arrays weren't as powerful as they were inside the Cultivation Room.
That is, the Qi would continue remaining invisible to the eye and not turn into white wisps like it did inside the Cultivation Room.
This wasn't because the wisps of Qi in the air would be distracting to the alchemists during the process of concoction, but rather because the arrays would accumulate just enough Qi to help the ones inside the room to focus better on their work and not be overwhelmed by it.
Entering the room, Yang Shen took the herbs out of his Spatial Ring and laid them down on the table in order of when he would need to use them.
Next, he withdrew the Seven Fox Furnace from the inventory and placed it on top of the table beside the herbs.
Since this was going to be his first time, Yang Shen didn't act like an expert and summoned the flames with a snap of his fingers and started throwing the herbs inside it one after the other.
He stretched his hand and touched the furnace's cold metal before lighting up a flame inside it.
Not using the Primordial Nine Suns Qi by itself since it would definitely destroy the furnace instantly, Yang Shen greatly diluted it with the white attribute less Qi inside him to start a fire.
Once the flame was lit, Yang Shen no longer continued touching the furnace since he could control the intensity of the bright red flames with his will and Qi from now on.
Playing with the fire for a while to get a proper understanding of how to use it, Yang Shen further brought the temperature down according to the requirement of the Sant Pill's recipe.
Next, he stretched his hand towards the first ingredient which had to be put inside the furnace first.
Regulating the heat of the flame the entire time according to the recipe, since each ingredient had to be refined differently, Yang Shen movements which were awkward in the beginning turned faster and smoother as he put more herbs inside the furnace.
Dropping in the final ingredient, after the refining of which he starts bringing all of the refined herbs together and started fusing them before diving into multiple individual portions, Yang Shen with a weird look on his face extinguished the flames and looked inside the silver furnace.
Seeing a bunch of glossy pills at the bottom of the furnace, Yang Shen looked towards his own hands in shock.
Did he just concoct his first pill just like that?
Though most of them only 4 pill stars, which meant that they were barely average, Yang Shen who never heard of anyone succeeding the first time they attempted to concoct a pill began thinking if maybe he really was an alchemy genius.